Aristotle Book 2

While reading Aristotle I was very surprised at how much I was able to understand. I read book 2 Chapter 18. The two sections that stood out to me were in the beginning and the middle of the piece. First Aristotle discusses the use of rhetoric and the discussions that have been had. He states that if a a topic has already been discussed and come to a conclusion it no longer needs to be discussed further. He stated, "Since the use of persuasive speech is directed to a judgement (there is no further need of speech on subjects that we know and have already judged)" (156).  While I think he makes the point that there is no need to waste time he ignores that things change and sometimes you have to revisit a subject you thought had already concluded. Next what I thought was interesting is how he approaches the topic of competing an argument that has no conclusion. Aristotle explains, "let us try to speak about enthymemes in general terms, so far as we can, and about paradigms, in order that having added what remains, we may complete the program originally outlined" (157). I thought this was a very bold idea because he seeks to answer the unanswered. To me it seems like he wants to conquer the continually circling debates that never end and always continue in the same patterns. This is supposed to be impossible, but he asks that instead of it being considered impossible to be conquered and answered instead of letting people to continue to wonder about the answer.